


Bedrest

by attic_gremlin



Series: LU Creative Train (Fluff Track) [2]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Bonding, Broken Bones, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I swear this is for the fluff track, Injury, Injury Recovery, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), LinkedUniverse, Recovery, downtime
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:00:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,977
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26641072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/attic_gremlin/pseuds/attic_gremlin
Summary: Healing is tough. But, with eight brothers to keep him company, Hyrule thinks he can handle a few weeks in this cast.Prompt: Recovery
Relationships: Four & Hyrule & Legend & Sky & Time & Twilight & Warriors & Wild & Wind (Linked Universe)
Series: LU Creative Train (Fluff Track) [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1938025
Comments: 10
Kudos: 67





	Bedrest

**Author's Note:**

> I'm so excited to finally post my entry for the 2020 LU Creative Train: Fluff Track!! I'm even more excited to read everyone's works; Check out the rest of the train if you haven't already, I promise it'll be amazing!! 
> 
> Thanks so much to Quail, Blue, and Olive for conducting!

It hasn’t been a good battle for Hyrule. First, he wrenches his shoulder blocking a heavy hit from a Moblin. Then, an arrow grazes his shoulder. A few minutes into the fight, a bokoblin makes a lucky shot and beans him in the forehead with a rock. 

His ears are still ringing when a second bokoblin sneaks up behind him. He hears someone shout a warning across the clearing, but he has no time to react before the bokoblin’s club collides with his thigh with a  _ thunk  _ and a sickening  _ crack _

For a moment, he feels nothing. Then, his thigh explodes with ice, then magma. He hears his voice cry out but doesn’t register doing so. When he falls, the world goes fuzzy. His leg tickles and burns and cramps.

Some time later ( _ minutes? seconds? hours?),  _ he sees Warriors kneeling next to him. On his other side, he sees Legend take his hand, clutching it in both of his own. It’s a distant pressure on Hyrule’s buzzing fingers, but it’s there. When Wars shifts him to get a better grip, the world is brought back into excruciating focus. The colors around him are too vibrant, the light too piercing, even with his eyes squeezed shut. Sounds bombard him, pounding against his eardrums like the stones of an octorok against his shield. When Wars finally lifts him from the ground, his agony reaches new heights for a fleeting moment, before the world finally cuts to black. 

___________________

When Hyrule wakes, the first thing he notices is the deep ache radiating from his thigh. It throbs along with each beat of his heart, sending waves of pain through his entire body. The second thing he notices is feather-soft sheets tickling his nose. Groggily, he peels his eyes open, blinking the crust from them to peer around the room. 

The room is on the second level. He sees a staircase a few feet away and hears soft voices from the floor below. Beside him, a small picture frame rests on the bedside table, but the photo inside is obscured by the glare from the window on the opposite wall. 

In an attempt to sit up and get a better look at his surroundings, he jostles his leg. A fresh stab of agony shoots through him, and tears spring to his eyes. Its all he can do not to cry out. Instead, he simply lets out a pitiful whine and flops back onto his pillow. 

The conversation downstairs grinds to a halt. A few moments later, Hyrule hears footsteps pounding up the rickety stairs and he blearily blinks away his tears to look. 

Wind’s face is the first to pop up from below the top step. 

“Hyrule, you’re ok!” he shouts, his relief tangible. He scrambles up the last few stairs and sprints to Hyrule’s bedside. Hyrule’s hand is currently clutching his bedsheets in a white-knuckled grip, but Wind is undeterred, and simply places his hand on top of it comfortingly. 

Twilight is the next to appear, followed closely by their six other companions. 

“How do you feel?” Time asks. 

Hyrule groans in response. 

It’s an accurate summary.

After the others help him to sit up, Hyrule is debriefed. They tell him that after he’d collapsed, Legend used something called an Ether medallion to destroy the rest of the ambush party. After they’d determined his leg was definitely broken, they’d checked for healing supplies and found none. Since they were in Wild’s home, they’d turned to him and he’d led them to Hateno. It had only been a few hours since Hyrule’s injury, but Wild had already brought Purah to take a look at him, and she’d wrapped his leg in a cast. 

At this point, Hyrule lifts the blanket over his lap to take a look at this “cast” thing they were talking about. 

His right leg is three times as large as it should be and forest green. Its surface is hard and numb and sounds hollow when he taps it. Before he can panic too much, though, Wild informs him that it’s a medical device. His leg is inside it, and it’s meant to hold his bone in place until it’s healed enough to hold itself together. Hyrule has only ever seen hastily-made splints before, but this seems like it performs a similar purpose. Wild tells him he has to wear it for three whole weeks, and he’s not even allowed out of  _ bed _ for the first week. An entire week confined to bed rest! 

Hyrule asks why they can’t just heal him with red potion or a fairy. Wild explains that the fairies of his home are hibernating now, and the recipe for red potion he knows causes terrible side effects in large doses. He ensures Hyrule that he’ll want to take it a little at a time; he’ll get a dose of red potion every day to help the healing process and ease the pain, but it will still be a weeks-long ordeal. 

After Hyrule is caught up and the others are reassured of his relative health, most of his companions filter out. Eventually, the only one left is Legend. 

Without a word, Legend drags a small wooden chair from the foot of the bed and takes a seat at Hyrule’s bedside. He reaches for his bag and retrieves a small book, then hesitates.    
  


“If you…I mean, I could read, if you want. Aloud.” He says, shuffling in his seat. 

Hyrule lights up. He nods enthusiastically and settles into his pillows. 

Legend’s voice is steady and smooth.  _ He’s good at this,  _ Hyrule thinks as he listens. The drone of Legend’s voice makes him relax into Wild’s soft bedding. His eyes steadily grow heavier, although he tries to hold onto consciousness until the end of the story. The tale Legend is reading from his book is  _ so  _ exciting-- it’s about an adventurer called Sahasrahla. An adventurer, Legend tells him-- not a Hero, not like they are. Just a traveler, not destined for heroism. An adventurer who fights for good and rightness and justice because it’s what he believes, not because it’s what he was born to do. Sahasrahla even gets to retire! He gets a wife, and his first child is about to be born. The story is just getting good!

The next thing he knows, he’s being shaken awake by Four. He glances around the room to see Legend fast asleep on his chair, head tilted back and mouth wide open. His place in the book is carefully marked with a strip of fabric and rests on the bedside table. He must have seen Hyrule fall asleep and decided to follow suit. 

Four speaks quietly, mindful of the sleeping Legend, to inform Hyrule that the others have just finished supper. They wanted to let him sleep as long as possible-- Four mentions something about resting being beneficial to healing-- but Hyrule should really eat something.

Hyrule’s stomach growls in agreement as Four hands him a bowl of hearty stew.

The next week progresses in much the same manner. Mostly, he sleeps. He finds ways of passing the time, like counting: he counts the floorboards (52 in the loft) the steps (13 judging by the others’ footsteps on them, the 7th creaks) and sheep (he never gets past 20-- healing a broken bone the old fashioned way takes quite a bit of energy, apparently). The others come to sit with him often, too, and take almost every meal upstairs with him. Their raucous laughter lifts his spirits higher with every meal they share. None of them, however, sit with him so often as Legend. He continues to read aloud, almost every day. They finish the story of Sahasrahla and move on to other stories of daring adventure, the fantasy occasionally softened by moments of weakness or doubt. The heroes Legend speaks of are fantastic, but feel real. They transport Hyrule away from his bedridden state and allow him to escape the same four walls he’s been staring at for two weeks. 

When the first week is finally up, Hyrule cheers. Wild leaves early in the morning and returns shortly with two strange objects. They’re long and thin, with tacky globs of something waxy called “rubber” at the ends. Wild calls them crutches. 

It takes several hours of practice to get the hang of the crutches, but Hyrule eventually figures it out. He can finally move around! Only a little at first, Wild says, but he’ll take what he can get. 

Hyrule’s second week in the cast is filled with the perfect sort of mundane adventures: they keep his mind occupied without taxing his body. One day, he accompanies Four to the local forge, and together they sharpen all nine of theirs and their companions’ swords. Another day, He follows Wind to the beach (making sure to follow Wild’s instruction to keep his cast dry) and builds a sandcastle. One morning late in the week, Wild brings him foraging. They find the mushrooms they’d been looking for, as well as a cliff with a lovely view and a cave housing a family of bears. Their adventures tire Hyrule out quite a bit, so he spends the following day inside with Sky. He alternates between dozing and watching with fascination as Sky turns a lump of wood into a beautiful bird statue.

After ages stuck in the cast, however, Wild scans Hyrule’s leg with one of his mysterious runes and finally announces that it’s healed enough, and the cast can be removed. Purah comes down from her lab with a glowing blue saw, and for a second Hyrule thinks she’s going to take his leg off along with the cast-- 

But she doesn’t, and soon Hyrule’s leg is free. It’s shrunken and pale and itches like crazy, but he’s never been so glad to have a bare leg. Purah tells him not to strain it too much, but he should start exercising the leg as soon and as much as possible to build the muscle back up. That day, he goes on a long walk all by himself and revels in the freedom he’d missed. 

The next day, however, he doesn’t get to hoard to himself. 

Warriors and Time look like they’re planning something at breakfast. As soon as Hyrule finishes his eggs, he finds out why. 

“So,” Warriors suddenly says nonchalantly, “Hyrule.”

Hyrule narrows his eyes at Wars from his place at the sink. He’d volunteered for dish duty out of guilt, but the look on Wars’ face made him wish he’d ditched after all and run down to the beach with Wind. 

“Warriors,” He replies, suspicion dripping from his tone. Wars shares a smirk with Time.

“How about a friendly spar to get your strength back?”

Hyrule considers. He  _ had _ been itching to return to swordplay. And Purah had said he should build his strength back as soon as he could. 

“Sounds great,” He replies, setting the last dish on the rack and wiping his sudsy hands. He jams his feet into his boots and follows Wars and Time out the door. 

Six other heroes stand outside in the yard, armed to the teeth with the weapons Hyrule and Four had sharpened the previous week. They’re all paired off randomly, and look happier than he’s seen them in weeks. A weight seems to have been lifted from the group as a whole. They laugh and tease lightheartedly as they spar. No one is giving their all (Hyrule knows, he’s seen their all) because in this moment, they don’t have to. They’re having fun and bonding, not fighting for their lives. As Hyrule settles into a wider stance across from Warriors and raises his blade, he smiles, a warm glow in his chest.

It seems that a few weeks of rest has done them  _ all _ some good.


End file.
